** LUKOIL, Russia’s second-largest crude oil producer, agreed to acquire small producer Samara-Nafta for $2.05 billion from Hess Corp as part of a long-term strategy to stabilise falling oil output.

** Greece’s international lenders have asked Athens to halt National Bank’s takeover of rival Eurobank, worried that the resulting lender would be too big for the state to deal with, two bankers close to the talks told Reuters on Saturday. The combined NBG-Eurobank group would have assets of 170 billion euros ($218.30 billion).

** Dell Inc warned on Friday that it would be dangerous to take on a lot of debt and remain a public company, given its worsening profit outlook, in a sign that it views proposals from Blackstone Group LP and billionaire investor Carl Icahn as fraught with risk. The No. 3 maker of personal computers published a 274-page preliminary proxy statement to inform Dell shareholders of how a $24.4 billion buyout proposal from founder and CEO Michael Dell and private equity firm Silver Lake Partners was put together, and why it is the best of all the alternatives the company’s board had explored.

** Egypt’s stock exchange said on Sunday a unit of Russian billionaire Mikhail Fridman’s Altimo had offered to buy 100 percent of Egypt’s Orascom Telecom. The $3.7 billion offer from a Cyprus-based firm owned by Altimo is at a price of 70 cents per share for all of Orascom Telecom’s 5.245 billion shares.

** Qatari investors are set to buy 100 percent of French department store Printemps, official documents seen by Reuters show. Through Luxembourg-based company Divine Investments, Qatari investors are offering to buy Borletti Group’s 30 percent stake in Printemps as well as the 70 percent holding owned by Deutsche Bank’s real estate investment unit RREEF, according to official documents seen by Reuters.

A source close to the talks told Reuters last month that RREEF and the Borletti Group were in exclusive talks to sell Printemps to Qatari investors for up to 2 billion euros ($2.57 billion).

** American Greetings Corp’s founding and controlling family clinched a deal to buy the gift card company at a time when it is facing intensifying competition from social media sites.

** Oil and gas producer Quicksilver Resources Inc’s shares rose 41 percent on Monday after the company said it signed a deal with Tokyo Gas Co to sell 25 percent of its stake in the Barnett Shale field in Texas for $485 million.

** Private equity firm KKR has entered into exclusive talks to buy a majority of French fashion brands Maje, Sandro and Claudie Pierlot, according to a source familiar with the transaction.

The acquisition of the brands, partially owned by LVMH Chief Executive Bernard Arnault, would give them an enterprise value of 650 million euros ($835 million), the source said.

** Dominion Diamond Corp said it had secured all necessary regulatory approvals to acquire BHP Billiton’s Ekati diamond operations in Canada’s Northwest Territories. Anglo-Australian mining company BHP Billiton agreed to sell its Ekati diamond operation in Canada’s far north to Harry Winston for $500 million last November.

** India’s IVRCL Ltd said on Friday it will sell its stakes in three road projects in the southern state of Tamil Nadu to TRIL Roads Pvt Ltd, a unit of steel-to-salt conglomerate Tata Group. The 154.83 km-long roads are build-operate-transfer (BOT) projects with a total project cost of 22 billion rupees ($404.78 million), it said in a statement.

** Russia’s top mobile phone operator MTS said on Friday it has acquired a 25.1 percent stake in MTS Bank for 5.1 billion roubles ($164 million) by buying additional shares issued by the bank.

** Gibson Guitar, known for producing electric guitars used by legendary rock guitarists such as Jimmy Page and Jeff Beck, said on Friday that it was buying a majority share in Japanese audio equipment manufacturer TEAC Corp for 4.88 billion yen ($51.9 million).